Letters to the Editor
-
Errors in the Iberian Airlines news story
This one was too easy. It's Iberia Airlines and Schiphol airport, not Iberian and Schipol airport.
Rob
-
Mistakes, Reuters Iberian Airlines item
1) Its Iberia Air (or Airlines), not Iberian Air (or Airlines).
2) The man did not threaten to blow up the plane. A hysterical passenger misintreperted the words "were going up" to mean that he was going to blow up the plane. (I wonder, did the man look Middle Eastern? A likely possibility on a Spanish plane headed to Spain--I don't think I need to explain why.)
-
Window seats for me, too!
I too love to look out the window; I just can't imagine the mindset of anyone that wouldn't. My idea of aviation hell is being the guy in the middle of the 5-abreast seating chunk that used to pass for coach seating in United's old DC-10's.
There is a practical dimension to a window seat as well. I'm a good-sized guy - 6' 3", and while my butt fits fine in the limited horizontal seating space my shoulders do not. A window gives me a chance to lean away from the poor person in the middle and give us both some space. And the aisle? My shoulders are constantly bumped by people, food carts, etc. The window seat is a refuge as far away from everyone else as possible while still staying in coach.
-
$3000 to Ireland
That 1946 ticket would cost over $3000 dollars, but what was the service like? Was it comparable to first class or economy? Of course, it would have taken a lot longer, as there were no jet airliners yet. Would it have stopped over in Newfoundland? However, if the service was more like that in first class, maybe there isn't such a huge price differential.
-
Seats, Virgin Atlantic, & comments
1) I can't believe the 1st #*@&(#$* person answered it correctly. Is there any way I can hack his timestamp? or mine?
2) Amen, brother, re: seats being uncomfortable. I fly a ton overseas in coach (200k+ last year), and I try to upgrade with miles to Business when I can. Mostly I'm on United and Continental; from Northern California they offer the best deals to the UK, continental Europe, and Australia. I stopped flying the cheapest flights to the UK (Virgin Atlantic), partially because their seats are psychotically uncomfortable, to the point of being a science experiment, and partially because they charge extra ($50? 50£?) for exit rows.
3) Re: your earlier article, I couldn't agree more on the trains from Schiphol, which are just fantastic--even if you're going into Belgium. It's often easier to fly to Amsterdam & train to Brussels than it is to fly direct. I've been to Changi Airport before, but I guess I was just too tired from the flight to notice the amenities. My favorite goofy-ex-Soviet airport was Sofia's, by the way. It's quite bad, but in an entertaining sort of way...
-
reader Quiz
The airline is Iberia, not IBERIAN and not AIRLINES.
Colin Gibson
-
I've already paid for my legroom
When I started flying a lot for work I initially had no particular loyalty to any carrier except that United had the largest number of flights from my regional airport. What eventually won me over was Economy Plus.
I've already paid for my extra legroom by flying 25,000 miles a year with United. Compared to the uncertainty of getting stuck next to a smelly toilet or having no legroom or getting a seat that won't recline, I fly United just so I know that I will have a predictable experience where my knees aren't jammed into the seat in front of me for four hours. If you are a vacation traveler and fly once or twice a year, this is frustrating but you soon forget about it. If you fly fairly often, it quickly becomes a reason to look for other ways to get to point X. To their credit, United figured this out and rewards their frequent travelers with more legroom. They are also pretty strict about not upgrading whiners, complainers, and infrequent travelers to Steerage +.
If United followed Northwest's lead and started letting everybody compete and pay for better economy seats, it wouldn't be long before I started flying based solely on cost, rather than comfort. United's figured out that flying economy isn't any fun, but for those of us that work for the government, non-profits or businesses that don't pay for business class, just being able to get off a plane without stiff legs is reason enough to fly a particular carrier.
It's a sorry situation that domestic airline service isn't of uniformly high quality, but airlines are today's Greyhound busses.
-
Pretzel Awards, yes
>Wider, contoured armrests would also be hugely welcome.
>Wider, contoured armrests would also be hugely welcome.
And, I hope this isn't redundant, but
>Wider, contoured armrests would also be hugely welcome.
In 2000, I flew from SFO to Egypt, with stopovers in LA and NY. On the LAX-JFK leg, The EgyptAir plane stuck me next to another 6'3" man, in the middle two of the four-across seats. Though my neighbor was a nice guy, and we tried not to crowd each other, I have never in my life had a harder time negotiating a knife and fork. I half wanted them to bring the meal on a paper plate, so that I could just taco the plate and funnel it all into my mouth. Me and the other guy raised the alarm after dinner and asked the flight attendant, "could you possibly let us take an empty seat?" She says: "sorry, when we get to New York, we'll see." Soon, however, after cleanup, people began taking matters into their own hands and drifting forward.
The Punch Line: when my neighbor and I moved forward to see if there were seats available in the next section, there certainly were; they had packed the rear coach section full of people, and the entire forward half of coach was completely empty. Soooo nice to stretch out and sleep.
>Wider, contoured armrests would also
have been
>hugely welcome.
I hear it about the fact that tickets are reasonable. One thing I have always counted my blessings for, in San Francisco. There's no way that $600 tickets to London aren't a bargain (I even got a $435 ticket to Greece once. I mean, you know?).
And... um... I don't mean to collude in tricking myself, or give the airlines evil ideas, but I keep thinking that rather than this annoying a la gouge charge business the Pilot mentions, why on earth don't they just tack the cost of whatever it is onto the ticket? We notice when we get the "optional purchase" pitch, but if I hear that the ticket costs $150, I'll never know it would have cost $135 without the blanket and pillow fee.